Home Social Sciences Culture and PTSD
book: Culture and PTSD
Book
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Culture and PTSD

Trauma in Global and Historical Perspective
  • Edited by: Devon E. Hinton and Byron J. Good
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2015
View content
View more publications by University of Pennsylvania Press
To Publisher Page

About this book

Since the 1970s, understanding of the effects of trauma, including flashbacks and withdrawal, has become widespread in the United States. As a result Americans can now claim that the phrase posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is familiar even if the American Psychiatric Association's criteria for diagnosis are not. As embedded as these ideas now are in the American mindset, however, they are more widely applicable, this volume attempts to show, than is generally recognized. The essays in Culture and PTSD trace how trauma and its effects vary across historical and cultural contexts.

Culture and PTSD examines the applicability of PTSD to other cultural contexts and details local responses to trauma and the extent they vary from PTSD as defined in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Investigating responses in Peru, Indonesia, Haiti, and Native American communities as well as among combat veterans, domestic abuse victims, and adolescents, contributors attempt to address whether PTSD symptoms are present and, if so, whether they are a salient part of local responses to trauma. Moreover, the authors explore other important aspects of the local presentation and experience of trauma-related disorder, whether the Western concept of PTSD is known to lay members of society, and how the introduction of PTSD shapes local understandings and the course of trauma-related disorders.

By attempting to determine whether treatments developed for those suffering PTSD in American and European contexts are effective in global settings of violence or disaster, Culture and PTSD questions the efficacy of international responses that focus on trauma.

Contributors: Carmela Alcántara, Tom Ball, James K. Boehnlein, Naomi Breslau, Whitney Duncan, Byron J. Good, Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good, Jesse H. Grayman, Bridget M. Haas, Devon E. Hinton, Erica James, Janis H. Jenkins, Hanna Kienzler, Brandon Kohrt, Roberto Lewis-Fernández, Richard J. McNally, Theresa D. O'Nell, Duncan Pedersen, Nawaraj Upadhaya, Carol M. Worthman, Allan Young.

Author / Editor information

Devon E. Hinton is Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard University and coeditor of Culture and Panic Disorder. Byron J. Good is Professor of Medical Anthropology at Harvard University and coeditor of Culture and Panic Disorder.

Reviews

"Culture and PTSD is a wonderful, rich, exciting book that raises and sometimes answers critical questions at the juncture of anthropology and the interdisciplinary study of PTSD. It is a valuable volume that makes a significant contribution to the field." --- "Stress and trauma have become part of globalized languages of suffering and healing and the construct of PTSD is at the center of this discourse. The editors have brought together a stellar group of contributors who present historical and ethnographic studies that unpack some of the complexity of trauma response and PTSD to show the interplay of social contexts, cultural practices, and psychological processes. Culture and PTSD marks important advances in cultural psychiatry and will be richly rewarding for both researchers and mental health practitioners." --- "This book should be compulsory reading for all civilian and military mission advisors and mentors."

Topics

  • Publicly Available

    Frontmatter

    i
    Download PDF
  • Publicly Available

    Contents

    v
    Download PDF
  • PART I. Introduction and Theoretical Background
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Introduction: Culture, Trauma, and PTSD

    3
    Byron J. Good and Devon E. Hinton
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    CHAPTER 1. The Culturally Sensitive Assessment of Trauma: Eleven Analytic Perspectives, a Typology of Errors, and the Multiplex Models of Distress Generation

    50
    Devon E. Hinton and Byron J. Good
  • PART I I. Historical Perspectives
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    CHAPTER 2. Is PTSD a Transhistorical Phenomenon?

    117
    Richard J. McNally
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    CHAPTER 3. What Is “PTSD”? The Heterogeneity Thesis

    135
    Allan Young and Naomi Breslau
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    CHAPTER 4. From Shell Shock to PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury: A Historical Perspective on Responses to Combat Trauma

    155
    James K. Boehnlein and Devon E. Hinton
  • PART III. Cross- Cultural Perspectives
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    CHAPTER 5. Trauma in the Lifeworlds of Adolescents: Hard Luck and Trou ble in the Land of Enchantment

    179
    Janis H. Jenkins and Bridget M. Haas
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    CHAPTER 6. Gendered Trauma and Its Effects: Domestic Vio lence and PTSD in Oaxaca

    202
    Whitney L. Duncan
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    CHAPTER 7. Exploring Pathways of Distress and Mental Disorders: The Case of the Highland Quechua Populations in the Peruvian Andes

    240
    Duncan Pedersen and Hanna Kienzler
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    CHAPTER 8. Latinas’ and Latinos’ Risk for PTSD After Trauma Exposure: A Review of Sociocultural Explanations

    275
    Carmela Alcántara and Roberto Lewis- Fernández
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    CHAPTER 9. Karma to Chromosomes: Studying the Biology of PTSD in a World of Culture

    307
    Brandon A. Kohrt, Carol M. Worthman and Nawaraj Upadhaya
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    CHAPTER 10. Square Pegs and Round Holes: Understanding Historical Trauma in Two Native American Communities

    334
    Tom Ball and Theresa D. O’Nell
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    CHAPTER 11. Culture, Trauma, and the Social Life of PTSD in Haiti

    359
    Erica Caple James
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    CHAPTER 12. Is PTSD a “Good Enough” Concept for Postconfl ict Mental Health Care? Refl ections on Work in Aceh, Indonesia

    387
    Byron J. Good, Mary- Jo DelVecchio Good and Jesse H. Grayman
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    List of Contributors

    419
  • Requires Authentication Unlicensed
    Licensed

    Index

    421

Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
December 18, 2015
eBook ISBN:
9780812291469
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
440
https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812291469
eBook ISBN: 9780812291469
Keywords for this book
anthropology; medicine; folklore; linguistics; health; caregiving; Cultural Trauma Responses; Ptsd Across Cultures; Trauma And Mental Health; Cross-Cultural Psychiatry; Anthropology Of Trauma; Global Mental Health; Trauma Diagnosis; Ptsd Treatment Outcomes; Trauma And Culture; Cultural Anthropology; Cross-Cultural Studies; Psychology; Cultural Differences; Psychopathology; Medicine; Folklore; Linguistics; Caregiving
Audience(s) for this book
For universities and colleges of further and higher education
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2026 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 13.2.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.9783/9780812291469/html
Scroll to top button